In a recorded talk for the British Council the artist described his work of 1957 as being very geometrically divided. ‘I wasn’t conscious of doing that when I painted them. It was how I felt the picture ought to be. Sometimes there’s a line down the middle, like the knife in this one, but often there’s gap there, and all the objects cling to the edges of the painting, leaving an openness and an emptiness in the middle of the picture… though I have an object, the emptiness has actually been made by the fact that I’ve used an empty object. I’ve used a wire basket which has no density at all, but it’s something which creates a space of emptiness within the picture. If you half close your eyes you’ll see it more clearly.’

William Scott, script for recorded illustrated lecture 1961, The British Council